https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A 93-strong international expedition team has been exploring the northwestern Weddell Sea in the Antarctic on board the Alfred Wegener Institute's icebreaker Polarstern since February 8, 2026. In this key region for global ocean currents, the focus has been on the outflow of ice and water from the Larsen Ice Shelf and the astonishing sea ice retreat of recent years. When the research work had to be interrupted due to rough weather conditions in order to seek shelter in the lee of Joinville Island, the scientists and ship's crew were surprised by the sudden appearance of an island that had previously only been marked as a danger zone on the available nautical charts. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-uncharted-island-nautical.html Earth Sciences Wed, 08 Apr 2026 17:50:02 EDT news694886401 In a remote part of Antarctica's western Weddell Sea, an area once hidden beneath a 200-meter-thick ice shelf, scientists have uncovered a new and unusual phenomenon: extensively maintained fish nesting grounds arranged in patterns. The discovery has been published in Frontiers in Marine Science. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-underwater-robot-lassie-remarkable-icefish.html Plants & Animals Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:01 EDT news680782554 A new study has revealed that tiny organisms called snow algae are significantly contributing to the surface melting on Antarctic ice shelves. The discovery could have far-reaching implications for global sea level rise. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-algae-antarctic-ice-shelf.html Earth Sciences Wed, 27 Aug 2025 08:42:04 EDT news675502922 A total collapse of the roughly 80-mile-wide Thwaites Glacier, the widest in the world, would trigger changes that could lead to 11 feet of sea-level rise, according to scientists who study Antarctica. To better predict fractures that could lead to such a collapse—and to better understand the processes driving changes in Antarctic ice shelves—a team led by researchers at Penn State developed a new method to evaluate cracks that destabilize ice shelves and accelerate those losses. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-antarctic-ice-tool.html Earth Sciences Thu, 10 Jul 2025 11:17:24 EDT news671365033 A new study reveals there was a time when massive icebergs, like the ones we see in Antarctica today, were drifting less than 90 miles off the U.K. coastline. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-massive-icebergs-roamed-coast-uk.html Earth Sciences Thu, 24 Apr 2025 13:09:10 EDT news664718946 Scientists have for the first time taken in-situ ocean measurements during the collapse of a giant iceberg in the sub-Antarctic. These new observations reveal how ocean ecosystems may be affected if more icebergs calve due to warmer ocean temperatures around Antarctica. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-mega-iceberg-affects-important-marine.html Earth Sciences Wed, 17 Jul 2024 11:30:03 EDT news640434601 In March 2002, the Larsen B Ice Shelf collapsed catastrophically, breaking up an area about one-sixth the size of Tasmania. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-historical-photos-reconstruct-antarctic-glaciers.html Earth Sciences Mon, 08 Jul 2024 11:51:04 EDT news639658261 Four dozen Antarctic ice shelves have shrunk by at least 30% since 1997 and 28 of those have lost more than half of their ice in that time, reports a new study that surveyed these crucial "gatekeepers'' between the frozen continent's massive glaciers and open ocean. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-scientists-huge-antarctic-ice-shelves.html Environment Sun, 15 Oct 2023 10:20:01 EDT news616389315 It was a good year for research of all kinds as three men shared the Nobel Prize in physics for their work that showed that tiny particles separated from one another at great distances can be entangled. Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger won the award for their work showing that the counterintuitive field of quantum entanglement is real and also demonstrable. https://phys.org/news/2022-12-year-articles.html Other Fri, 09 Dec 2022 09:30:01 EST news589716013 New factors have been identified which contribute to record-high temperatures and ice melt over the eastern Antarctic Peninsula and Larsen C Ice Shelf. https://phys.org/news/2022-07-tropical-storms-trigger-antarctic-ice.html Earth Sciences Wed, 13 Jul 2022 09:58:46 EDT news576925123 Despite the rapid melting of ice in many parts of Antarctica during the second half of the 20th century, researchers have found that the floating ice shelves which skirt the eastern Antarctic Peninsula have undergone sustained advance over the past 20 years. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-sea-ice-antarctic-sheet-stability.html Earth Sciences Fri, 13 May 2022 03:47:26 EDT news571632437 The lakes that form on Antarctica's ice shelves can drive vertical cracks deep within the ice, increasing the chance of ice shelf collapse and sea level rise. However, if meltwater accumulates in certain areas and drains fast enough, it may temporarily stabilize the ice shelf despite increased warming, according to researchers. https://phys.org/news/2022-04-strong-tides-lakes-beneficial-antarctic.html Earth Sciences Tue, 19 Apr 2022 06:52:23 EDT news569569933 A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions across Europe has found evidence that suggests the collapse of the Larsen A and B ice shelves was due to the arrival of atmospheric rivers. In their paper published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, the group describes how they tracked the movement of atmospheric rivers during the time period when the ice shelves collapsed and what their work reveals about likely scenarios unfolding in Antarctica as global warming continues. https://phys.org/news/2022-04-larsen-ice-shelves-collapsed-due.html Earth Sciences Fri, 15 Apr 2022 09:47:59 EDT news569234875 A new study by scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has used computer modeling to rank the factors responsible for the Larsen C ice shelf melt according to their severity. https://phys.org/news/2022-04-biggest-threats-larsen-ice-shelf.html Earth Sciences Thu, 14 Apr 2022 14:33:17 EDT news569165595 The rate of glacier ice flow is more sensitive to stress than previously calculated, according to a new study by MIT researchers that upends a decades-old equation used to describe ice flow. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-ice-sensitive-stress-previously-thought.html Earth Sciences Thu, 10 Mar 2022 09:23:24 EST news566126601 One of the world's most storied shipwrecks, Ernest Shackleton's Endurance, has been discovered off the coast of Antarctica more than a century after its sinking, explorers announced Wednesday. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-shackleton-lost-shipwreck-antarctica.html Archaeology Wed, 09 Mar 2022 04:39:41 EST news566023177 152 billion tons of fresh water—equivalent to 20 times the volume of Loch Ness or 61 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, entered the seas around the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia when the megaberg A68A melted over three months in 2020/2021, according to a new study. https://phys.org/news/2022-01-satellites-mega-iceberg-billion-tons-fresh.html Environment Thu, 20 Jan 2022 09:54:39 EST news561894876 Glaciologists at the University of California, Irvine and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have examined the dynamics underlying the calving of the Delaware-sized iceberg A68 from Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf in July 2017, finding the likely cause to be a thinning of ice melange, a slushy concoction of windblown snow, iceberg debris and frozen seawater that normally works to heal rifts. https://phys.org/news/2021-09-scientific-team-uncovers-additional-threat.html Earth Sciences Mon, 27 Sep 2021 16:10:16 EDT news551977813 A vast iceberg that broke off Antarctica earlier this month could drift through the ocean for several years before it breaks up and melts away, a scientist from the European Space Agency said Friday. https://phys.org/news/2021-05-vast-antarctic-iceberg-drift-ocean.html Earth Sciences Fri, 21 May 2021 18:12:30 EDT news540839545 A huge ice block has broken off from western Antarctica into the Weddell Sea, becoming the largest iceberg in the world and earning the name A-76. https://phys.org/news/2021-05-world-largest-iceberg-antarctica-european.html Environment Thu, 20 May 2021 06:18:15 EDT news540710293 More than a third of the Antarctic's ice shelf area could be at risk of collapsing into the sea if global temperatures reach 4°C above pre-industrial levels, new research has shown. https://phys.org/news/2021-04-antarctic-ice-shelf-area-collapse.html Earth Sciences Thu, 08 Apr 2021 09:00:01 EDT news537081866 Satellite images have revealed that the once colossal A-68A iceberg has had yet another shattering experience. Several large cracks were spotted in the berg last week and it has since broken into multiple pieces. These little icebergs could indicate the end of A-68A's environmental threat to South Georgia. https://phys.org/news/2021-02-a-68a-iceberg.html Earth Sciences Wed, 03 Feb 2021 10:26:30 EST news531570381 A new study says that many of the ice shelves ringing Antarctica could be vulnerable to quick destruction if rising temperatures drive melt water into the numerous fractures that currently penetrate their surfaces. The shelves help slow interior glaciers' slide toward the ocean, so if they were to fail, sea levels around the world could surge rapidly as a result. The study appears this week in the leading journal Nature. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-antarctic-ice-shelves-vulnerable-sudden.html Earth Sciences Wed, 26 Aug 2020 11:00:04 EDT news517641397 The ice shelves surrounding the Antarctic coastline retreated at speeds of up to 50 metres per day at the end of the last Ice Age, far more rapid than the satellite-derived retreat rates observed today, new research has found. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-antarctic-ice-sheets-capable-retreating.html Earth Sciences Thu, 28 May 2020 14:00:01 EDT news509868709 Dangers to ancient Antarctic ice portend a future of rapidly rising seas, but a new study may relieve one nagging fear: that ponds of meltwater fracturing the ice below them could cause protracted chain reactions that unexpectedly collapse floating ice shelves. Though pooled meltwater does fracture ice, ensuing chain reactions appear short-ranged. https://phys.org/news/2019-10-reframing-antarctica-meltwater-pond-dangers.html Earth Sciences Fri, 25 Oct 2019 13:15:54 EDT news491228142 Antarctica's ice sheet spans close to twice the area of the contiguous United States, and its land boundary is buttressed by massive, floating ice shelves extending hundreds of miles out over the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean. When these ice shelves collapse into the ocean, they expose towering cliffs of ice along Antarctica's edge. https://phys.org/news/2019-10-antarctic-ice-cliffs-contribute-sea-level_1.html Earth Sciences Mon, 21 Oct 2019 14:18:42 EDT news490886304 Antarctica's ice sheet spans close to twice the area of the contiguous United States, and its land boundary is buttressed by massive, floating ice shelves extending hundreds of miles out over the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean. When these ice shelves collapse into the ocean, they expose towering cliffs of ice along Antarctica's edge. https://phys.org/news/2019-10-antarctic-ice-cliffs-contribute-sea-level.html Earth Sciences Mon, 21 Oct 2019 07:41:34 EDT news490862488 The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of Earth's coldest continent, making it particularly vulnerable to a changing global climate. Surface melting of snow and ice initiated the breakup of the peninsula's northernmost Larsen A ice shelf in 1995, followed in 2002 by the Larsen B ice shelf to the south, which lost a section roughly the size of Rhode Island. https://phys.org/news/2019-04-autumn-strain-antarctica-larsen-ice.html Earth Sciences Thu, 11 Apr 2019 10:18:00 EDT news474196670 For the first time, a research team co-led by CIRES-based scientists, has directly observed an Antarctic ice shelf bending under the weight of ponding meltwater on top, a phenomenon that may have triggered the 2002 collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf. And ice shelf flexure could potentially impact other vulnerable ice shelves, causing them to break up, quickening the discharge of ice into the ocean and contributing to global sea level rise. https://phys.org/news/2019-02-ice-shelves-buckle-weight-meltwater.html Earth Sciences Wed, 13 Feb 2019 05:00:03 EST news469249919 The filling and draining of meltwater lakes has been found to cause a floating Antarctic ice shelf to flex, potentially threatening its stability. https://phys.org/news/2019-02-surface-lakes-antarctic-ice-shelves.html Earth Sciences Wed, 13 Feb 2019 05:00:02 EST news469249689